Heigh Ho - it's been a while. Not much to write about as most everything has been status quo, plus I was out of town for a few days in there. Yeah, there have been some minor quirks in the meantime - par for the course, I guess. We did have our Tuesday outage today, which beyond the normal tasks included swapping out dying drives with new ones in two of our major servers: thumper and bruno. You may have noticed the web site go dead for 15 minutes there while thumper was off line. The fact that both drive swaps/reboots went along quickly and without and hitches speaks well of our current server quality and configuration, I guess.

In case anybody missed it, Eric responded nicely to the current wave of news regarding the Allen Telescope Array going into hibernation. I swear every time there's a SETI related article in a major publiation (positive or negative) we have to do some kind of damage control, cleaning up various journalistic errors and reader misconceptions.

- Matt-- BOINC/SETI@home network/web/science/development person
-- "Any idiot can have a good idea. What is hard is to do it." - Jeanne-Claude

Awwww, I miss the good old days when my machine could rest for a week or two because you guys had to swap out a dying drive.....NOT!!!

It's really great that a drive swap is nearly painless. Just take it in stride during the weekly outage. I wonder if anyone even gave a second thought to the webpages going down for 15 minutes? If this keeps up SETI is going to turn into a very boring place. Oh gee, nothing to report guys, maybe next week something will happen! Oops, Eric tripped over a cable, no problem he didn't hurt anything.

Thanks for the Update Matt. Man, seems like it's been pretty quiet around here. I guess that is a GOOD thing ! Glad that everything is going pretty good for you and the SETI team. I'm crunch'n and I'm HAPPY ! Keep up the good work !

In case anybody missed it, Eric responded nicely to the current wave of news regarding the Allen Telescope Array going into hibernation. I swear every time there's a SETI related article in a major publiation (positive or negative) we have to do some kind of damage control, cleaning up various journalistic errors and reader misconceptions.

Hello. I just found out about the Allen Telescope Array. Sorry to hear about it. I'm glad that you have put some information about this on your web site. Quite a few people who know that I crunch numbers for SETI@home, told me that I would not be able to do it any longer. They said that SETI@HOME lost all their funding and was shutting down. I got on the web site as soon as I heard this. Glad that it's not going to cause a problem for this project. It seems the media just don't look into things before they broadcast information. I don't know if it can be done your your tight budget, but it would be nice if you could get the TRUTH out to the public. Everyone in my area thinks that the project is history.

They did get the word out... right here. If anyone says otherwise, just point them to Eric's post.

There's always the grass roots option by word of mouth. Spread the word, SETI@Home is not shutting down (at least not yet!).

Yes, the word is out on the web site, but there are a LOT of people here, that do NOT have internet. Hard to believe I know, but it's the truth. They get news on TV and that is about it. Most of the people that live here are older people, and they don't want a thing to do with computers. Anyway, I've been telling the people the truth. I'm not trying to make a fuss or anything, but we all must remember, that NOT EVERYONE has a computer. They depend on TV for information !!!! Even though there are a lot of people here that do not have computers or internet, they are still VERY interested in what is going on with SETI@home. They are always asking me if SETI has found anything yet, or, What is the project doing now ? Yes, they are VERY interested, but either they cannot afford a computer, or they might HAVE a computer, but cannot afford internet access, or, they are older people that do not understand computers and they just don't want one. Sorry for running my mouth for so long, but like I said, NOT EVERYONE has a computer.

They did get the word out... right here. If anyone says otherwise, just point them to Eric's post.

There's always the grass roots option by word of mouth. Spread the word, SETI@Home is not shutting down (at least not yet!).

Yes, the word is out on the web site, but there are a LOT of people here, that do NOT have internet. Hard to believe I know, but it's the truth. They get news on TV and that is about it. Most of the people that live here are older people, and they don't want a thing to do with computers. Anyway, I've been telling the people the truth. I'm not trying to make a fuss or anything, but we all must remember, that NOT EVERYONE has a computer. They depend on TV for information !!!! Even though there are a lot of people here that do not have computers or internet, they are still VERY interested in what is going on with SETI@home. They are always asking me if SETI has found anything yet, or, What is the project doing now ? Yes, they are VERY interested, but either they cannot afford a computer, or they might HAVE a computer, but cannot afford internet access, or, they are older people that do not understand computers and they just don't want one. Sorry for running my mouth for so long, but like I said, NOT EVERYONE has a computer.

...and if they don't own a computer or don't know about the internet, then they're not a member of SETI@Home, and probably never will be. So in essence, it doesn't matter if they think it's the SETI Institute or if it's SETI@Home that closes down. Either way to them, the details don't matter, so there's no point in worrying about it.

For those that are very interested they will look for additional information, and they will find the answers they seek. They come to you, don't they? And anyone else interested will ask the people they know, and so on and so forth. Problem solved.

Well, yeah. You are right. I just get upset with the media when things like this happen. Seems like they never tell the full truth about things these days. Like I said in the last message, I don't mean to run my mouth. I just get upset with the media, and I start venting to the world about it. I Do want to say though, that the people in my area Are very interested in the SETI@HOME project, and I have talked to many of them and told them what is going on Lots of them would like to be part of the project, but they just can't do it.

I understand how misinformation can be frustrating when it's something you care about. Just try not to let it get to you. There's no point in getting all angry and shortening your life by stressing yourself out over this.

Unfortunately, misinformation happens all the time. The best solution against misinformation is to spread the correct answer. The best way you can do that is by word of mouth and providing your proof for your claims to the contrary.

...and in honor of the rumors of a new Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure sequel: have a most excellent day dude!

I think it would help if when the Seti Institute publshes stuff, they make it clear that Seti@Home is a separate project to them.

It would surely help *us*, but from a completely capitalistic standpoint the SETI Institute has zero interest in making that distinction. If they do nothing, they'll continue to get free checks from people thinking they are donating to SETI@home. Of course I don't have any hard numbers, but let's be realistic: I'm sure over the years the SETI Institute got some noteworthy amount of $$$ from misaimed donations, and it most likely doesn't work the other way around.

- Matt-- BOINC/SETI@home network/web/science/development person
-- "Any idiot can have a good idea. What is hard is to do it." - Jeanne-Claude

Well good to see that everything is still going well for S@H in fact things seem to be going especially smooth. Good work in getting things running so well.

Glad to hear that SETI@home isn't affected by thees budget cutbacks. I just saw a Headline that said SETI being put on hold and I didn't know if they were talking about S@H or the SETI Institute or what.

Well good to see that everything is still going well for S@H in fact things seem to be going especially smooth. Good work in getting things running so well.

Glad to hear that SETI@home isn't affected by thees budget cutbacks. I just saw a Headline that said SETI being put on hold and I didn't know if they were talking about S@H or the SETI Institute or what.

As always, keep up the good work.

Much of the fate of this project is in the hands of we fellow participants.

I have done many fund raisers for this project, and probably will launch another soon. Something so important can not be left to wither.